Beijing

We are now back in Beijing.  Looking forward to proper internet in Singapore!

Our very last visit this afternoon was to a church.  This is St Josephs' near our hotel.

There was a service taking place.  Surreptitious photo.  Communion items were at the back of the church.  Not sure why.

 

Dunhuang

We are now in Beijing, having spent two  nights in Dunhuang.  Dunhuang's claim to fame, apart from its sand dunes and importance to the Silk Road, is the nearby magnificently decorated Buddhist caves.  But some pics.

Our hotel room in DH.

Sand  dunes around DH.

Magao Caves is the largest and most well known  complex.  Getting to the caves is an expedition in itself.  The ticket office is miles away and then you take a shuttle bus and walk.  You can see there are lots of people wanting to see them.  The caves have entrances stabilised and paved.  There are hundreds of caves - each day only some of them are open.  We saw 8.  No pics in the Caves, not even surreptitious ones.

This is the cave containing a huge Buddha.  There is always a Big Buddha somewhere.

In the afternoon, we went to the much less crowded Western Caves.  The Caves are smaller and less spectacular, but it was a much more relaxed and peaceful process. This is the lead-up to the caves.

And this is the built-up entrances to the caves.

Cave country.

Xian

Today we flew to Xian.

We visited a Taoist temple.  It was large and very peaceful, in contrast to the stalls and high-rise around us.

We also visited the Xian Mosque.  Islam, along with Christianity and Judaism, are monotheistic faiths.  They are also congregational, with the architectural need for assembly halls.  In this mosque, the architecture is distinctly Chinese, or as our lecturer would say, sinicised.

Looking towards the Prayer hall.

Close up of the hall, showing the mihrad (indication of the direction of Mecca).

Today's Chinglish.  This was above the tap in the ladies basin.

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Yungang Caves

There are several cave complexes in China containing Buddhist iconography.  Yungang Caves are interesting because they date from the 5th century and differ from the sinicized later Buddhist images.  Hence the Indian influence, from whence Buddhism originated, is very obvious.  (You can see I have been intently listening to our lecturer!)

Some pictures.

General view of the caves.

Some entrances are built up.

The caves contain carvings - many carved our of "living" stone - ie carved out of the existing stone.  Here is an example of a column.  It gores from the floor to the ceiling.

Another image of Buddha.  Managed to get this when the "no photography" attendant wasn't looking.

Another surreptitiously obtained photograph of the decorations inside a cave.  Some are more elaborate than others.

And every Buddhist complex has to have a Big Buddha.

Chinglish at breakfast

I am starting to feel mean chuckling at attempts to welcome "foreigners".  But basically we are in inland China and best to forget any familiar breakfast items (like toast) and just stick to the noodles.

One part of the breakfast lineup for foreigners.  Bread & butter pudding next to the bacon next to waffles and next to the  fried chicken.

Some items from breakfast. 

Google tells me that a pleurotus eryngii is a King Trumpet mushroom.

And something new

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The Hanging Temple / Hanging Monastery / Xuankong Temple

The main feature of today was the Hanging Temple.  It was one of the reasons for choosing this tour.

It is a temple built into a cliff, 75 metres above the ground.  Oak crossbeams fitted into holes chiseled into the cliffs provide the main support for the monastery.  The vertical poles don't do much, except provide "visual reassurance", according to our lecturer's book on the subject.

This monastery supports three faiths - Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism.  But I think its unusual location makes it much more a tourist attraction than a functioning monastery.

Some pics.  This is the wide view, showing the temple on the cliff face.

Closer up.

Side view.

You can go up.  I got as far as the entrance plaza.  BTW, here I was welcomed by someone considerably friendlier than the previous day's monk!

 Kin Mun went the whole way.

Wooden Pagoda of Fogong Temple

Our first visit today was to the Wooden Pagoda.  This 500 year old, 67 metre high structure has survived many earthquakes.  We could only visit the ground floor.

 Close up

And today's Chinglish

Wutaishan

Posting on the blog by email doesn't seem to be working.  So have activated the VPN and will try to post in the usual way.

This morning we visited Wutaishan - or Mt Wutai.  It has become a pilgrimage site for Buddhists, with all the visitor paraphernalia that involves.  There are five temples arranged on a mountain ridge.

The view over the Valley.

  

On the way to the first temple.

A Buddha

 

And another

And  a thousand arm Buddha.  Knowing how much of our brain is devoted to the operation of our two arms, I pondered the neuro-anatomy of such a creature.

Of course there were prayer wheels.  Something to do as you walk around.

Today's Chinglish.
Self explanatory.

What this one means is that a monk has to be present at all times.  If he leaves a room, he has to be sure than any candles, joss sticks etc are extinguished.  These are all wooden structures.

I got a tongue lashing from a monk (I wanted to take his photo) who told me that Britain and Australia were no friends of China.  Then he wandered on to the Japanese - we hid our solitary American.  So no photo!

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Beijing - Tiantan

We arrived in Beijing at 11pm, and the longest queue at Beijing airport was for the taxi.  China has begun to fingerprint people between the ages of 14 and 70.  Everyone has to go to a fingerprint booth, but we got a little slip that says OK without having to put our fingers on the glass - being old has one advantage and just as in my first visit . 

Let's not even think about the infection control implications of mass fingerprinting!  I guess it is on a par with lift buttons.

We met up with tour group for lunch then went to one of my favourite places - Tiantan - the Temple of Heaven.  It was my fourth visit to this very beautiful site. It might be called a Temple, but it is really a site of ceremonial procedures in imperial China.  This was to keep the balance and harmony between man, the earth and heaven. The emperor had his role in all this. 

Smaller version, with KM.

Not our tour group.  But a good idea.  Today we managed to lose one of our group, who was found again at the bus.  Fifteen years ago, on my first visit to Tiantan, we also lost a group member, who got himself back to the hotel.  It must be that sort of place.

A warning.  Let's hope you don't get itchy on your visit!

Chinese Wifi works for my Hotmail, not for FB or the blog.  Surprisingly WhatsAp works on the mobile phone, but cannot send pics or videos.

And weather is good and clear.  Beijing's pollution is nowhere to be seen.